Newsletter

Federal inmate shot at Kingsland medical facility

A corrections officer from D. Ray James Prison in Folkston, Ga., shot an inmate who had wrestled a service weapon away from another corrections officer at a Kingsland, Ga., medical office and fired it, authorities said.

Two corrections officers had taken three inmates to a medical office at 130 Gross Road in Kingsland about 9:40 a.m. Tuesday when one of the inmates, a 33-year-old man, attacked one of the guards, Lt. Todd Tetterton of the Kingsland police said in a prepared release.

Although the inmate was in leg irons and in handcuffs attached in front to a waist chain, he was able to wrestle partial control of the officer's service weapon, Tetterton said.

The inmate gained control of the gun and fired one shot that struck the ground in a rear parking lot of the facility. The second officer then shot the inmate.

He was taken to Shands Jacksonville hospital, where he underwent emergency surgery and at last report was in critical condition, Tetterton said.

No one else was injured.

Cornell Corrections, a private prison company, holds federal inmates under contract with the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.